


Seeing America Together

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics), Green Arrow (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics)
Genre: Charity Auctions, Fandom Trumps Hate, M/M, Mostly Gen, Road Trips, Slice of Life, but the pairing is there, yes this is a riff on Hard Traveling Heroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 05:36:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19434982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Hal and Ollie go on a road trip.





	Seeing America Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anoyo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anoyo/gifts).



"You don't really know America."

"Neither do you."

The men looked at each other, trying to remember if they had actually been fighting or arguing, or maybe just debating something that had gotten lost along the way.

"Seems to me, Hal, if we're both going to be in a thing that has 'America' in the name, that's something we ought to fix," Ollie said at long last.

Hal raised his beer in Ollie's direction, and Ollie clinked his bottle against it. "Alright, Bow-Boy, we go out and look at what America is, just the two of us. Means ditching the kid for a while."

"He's got his team, and I'll see if Miss Arrowette or Black Canary can check in on him from time to time," Ollie said. "So you got yourself a buddy for this trip, Green Bean."

They finished their current beers, made a decent run at the rest of them, tossing ideas back and forth to their heart's content.

* * *

"What's the name of the town again?"

"Bristol."

Oliver looked at the map, turned it around, and then folded it up with a sigh. "It's a little bigger dot on the map than the last place," he said, shrugging.

Hal chuckled before he signaled and pulled over on the shoulder, which made Ollie look up and then out.

"Damn."

He didn't have a hat on, but Hal pulled his ballcap off, just like he would if he weren't in a truck, as a funeral procession passed them at a dignified speed.

"Town small enough that the whole place turned out for this?" Hal asked as the procession kept coming.

"Maybe," Ollie said. "Wonder if it will be like that for us, Hal? You think anyone will give a real damn when Team Green finally crashes and burns?"

"Speak for yourself, Robin Hood; I don't crash," Hal retorted to that, not really wanting to think about his own mortality. Nor did he want to consider his best friend — well, a bit more than that — not being at his side.

Ollie just snorted and let it go.

"We need gas, so I hope someone is at the station when we get there," Hal added after the last of the funeral had passed, and he could get back out on the road.

"If not, we'll just wait. There's not another map dot for at least one more crease in the paper."

"Remind me not to ever let you be my navigator again, buddy."

* * *

The first thing Hal saw when he went in to pay for the gas was the big plastic bin set up for donations, with a family picture of one man, one woman, four kids, and a dog. His eyes glanced over the words with the picture, not quite processing them at first. He'd gotten his receipt back before they clicked, and his heart sank a little.

Veteran dad, sole breadwinner, dead in an industrial accident, leaving behind a widow and four young kids was nothing he'd wanted to see. It didn't matter that they were strangers. It didn't matter that Hal intellectually knew this happened around the world on a regular basis. What mattered was that he had seen it, read it, all while he was on this big trip about discovering America, about reconnecting with what it meant to be a hero.

He went back outside to Oliver, to the truck, and climbed into the cab.

He then sat there for a minute, while Ollie just looked at him in profile, letting him get his thoughts together.

"What do you say to an overnight here?" Hal asked him finally.

"Suits me as well as anywhere else. Motel up there on the frontage road, and like I said, the next dot's a ways off," Ollie told him in a lazy drawl, knowing not to press just yet for why the change in plans to keep pushing through this day with driving.

"Shouldn't be too expensive even," Hal agreed, turning the engine over to head that way.

* * *

The motel they would up in was adjacent to a diner, and that was where the pair headed as soon as they got checked in and had keys.

"Sure is easier to get a single room with a fellow than if you're sharing with a lady," Ollie teased as they walked across the parking lot.

"Ollie, when have you ever known a lady?" Hal threw back at him. "The clerks are right to suspect you and any woman walking in for illicit activities."

That got a laugh and a shrug. "I've given up those days, Hal. And actually it did happen. But that's because the Canary and I were out late down toward Baja, and I didn't want her riding back that tired."

Hal looked over his shades at the other man. "You expect me to believe nothing happened? After you flashed enough cash to shut the clerk up over the whole not married thing? Or did you pull the married scam?"

"Neither, and nothing did happen," Ollie grumped at him. "She leaned in and told the clerk that she was tired, she'd break my arm if I tried anything, and that she just wanted to shower and sleep. For some reason, people believe her when she gets _that_ tone in her voice."

"But nothing happened?"

That made Ollie shake his head at Hal. "You were on a team with her for how long and don't know she means those threats?" He then laughed at the half-shrug Hal threw for that. "She made it very clear I am not her type. I don't do broody well enough for her tastes."

That got a laugh out of Hal too as he pulled the door open for them to enter the diner. "Okay, _that_ is on the mark."

They were waved on to find a table, and did, waiting for the waitress. Oliver looked around, noticing the little touches of a small town lifestyle, from the quaint decor to the old, well-used look of the tables and chairs. He let his eyes wander, until he saw a donation jar sitting up by the cash till. His eyes let him make out the general details, and a frown crossed his lips.

Hal noted it, looked in that direction, and sighed. "Yeah. Kind of why I decided we'd stop here."

"Not sure what we can do for them," Ollie said. "But I think I get it."

"That's part of what all this is, right? Figuring out how to make things better at a level that matters?" Hal challenged.

Ollie looked him dead in the eyes. "And how are we going to do that, hundreds, thousands of times over? We might find a way to impact here, but what about the others that die and leave families behind?" He held up a hand. "Not saying we don't try, Hal. But if we look at the big picture, how do we take this and make it work for the most people?"

"I don't know. I just know I want to do this."

Ollie nodded. "Then we will."

* * *

Hal came back from talking to the clerk at the motel and Ollie pushed off the truck where he'd been leaning.

"Well?"

"Bake sale and other activities at the church on Saturday," Hal said.

"Doesn't give us a lot of wiggle room," Ollie answered, considering.

"Nope. But we backtrack to that last town, hit the printer with a promotional flyer, and come back as Team Green that day. Hope that people take the chance on it being legitimate."

Oliver snorted, then laughed outright. "Hal, they'll come just hoping we're fakers so they can boo and laugh at us."

Hal gave a sly grin. "Then, sounds like a way to do it, right?"

"Works for me."

* * *

**Local Family Receives Super Help at Fundraiser** was the headline, enough to make Hal grumble a little as he held the map and Ollie drove.

"Admit it, pal, you are in a weight class closer to the Boy Scout than I ever will be," Ollie said, knowing that was the bone to be picked. After all, he didn't fancy calling himself a superhero either. He was just a guy with the money and time to buy fancy toys, train up, and use them for bettering people's lives.

"There's a reason I don't fly with the ring," Hal told him. "I'm still just me, Harold Jordan, ex-Air Force pilot, current test pilot for Ferris Aircraft."

Ollie glanced over with a snort, then had to veer to miss a crater-sized pothole. "Hal, how many people qualify for flight, let alone the fighter jets? And how many of those are good enough to fly experimental aircraft? Aircraft that I will point out have a tendency to crash, and yet you still walk away and the company learns from them because they're not twisted fiery carnage?"

Hal had to laugh at that summation. "Okay, okay. But look at you, buddy. There's not that many rich kids in America that, when trapped in a live-or-die situation could pull off what you did because of a hobby and a fascination with Robin Hood, Errol Flynn, and Howard Hill!"

"Okay, point to you. Still. Long distance from 'shoot pointy sticks at things' to 'punch Grundy with an imaginary boxing glove'."

"I got the idea for that from you and your impossible boxing glove arrow, so don't even start that tack with me," Hal told him, grinning. "Face it, Ollie. You're just as amazing as me, or at least close enough to mostly keep up!"

* * *

They were camped out, a low fire crackling nearby, both of them already in their sleeping bags staring up at the sky above. They were far enough from any towns to have a good set of stars, and Ollie had started pointing out constellations.

"You know I can't make them out," Hal said, laughing a little after Ollie added a growl at the end of naming one of the animal constellations. "That's not the way I see things. You have an eye for art; I just see a reminder of what I have to do when I wear the ring."

Ollie shifted up on his elbow to look at Hal, frowning. "Does it really sit that heavy on you, Hal?"

"Sometimes," was the immediate answer, before Hal shrugged, hands still under the back of his head, looking up. "Gave myself over to being a hero when I enlisted, you know? But I didn't count on meeting a dying alien, or even really know what I was doing when I took the ring.

"Sure, I could probably give it back to the little blue guys, walk away, but there's something in me that says that's just... not me. I may not have known, not then, but I do now. And there are aliens out there, beings with tech and science bigger than anything we've got.

"Earth needs me to keep this ring. I just sometimes don't know if I'm strong enough to handle Earth and the other aliens out there that are in my sector. What am I missing, one man, trying to cover a slice of the galaxy?"

Oliver stared at him in silence until Hal finally looked over his way, catching the serious expression.

"What?" Hal asked. "I'm being honest."

"It's the fact you even try, Hal, that makes me respect you for the hero you can be," Ollie told him. "J'onn's got that whole ineffable Martian mystique going on. Di's the legacy hero. Barry's making the best of a situation he didn't ask for, like you. And Arthur's probably the one that can actually relate best to you.

"But it's Arthur, and sometimes he's impossible to actually know," Ollie finished. "He's balancing two different worlds too."

"Yeah. We… talk, sometimes. But he's got that kid, and gives a lot more time to things under the water too." Hal snorted. "Maybe that's the issue. I'm out here loafing, instead of working."

"Keep talking like that, and I'm looking for the pod," Ollie said, setting them both to laughing before he could continue. "Seriously, we both said we needed this. We were losing sight. But now, you have your eyes out there and down here… which makes it more important that you do make sure you've got your head on right, your feet on the ground.

"So, enjoy the time off, and know you've earned it, buddy."

Hal looked back up, and Ollie settled back to staring at the stars, letting the quiet descend.

* * *

Hal was sitting on the sink counter as Ollie did his damnedest to make a steam cloud to rival Yosemite. "So why aren't you and Dinah hitting it off? You argue and pick on her near as much as you do with me."

"Different interests, different walks of life," Ollie said. "Like I said, pretty sure she might give us a run for our money if we made bets on getting waitresses' numbers.

"She's a great friend, but it's not a happening thing." Ollie then stuck his head around the flimsy excuse for a curtain, one doing nothing to keep the water inside the tub and off the floor. "Tired of me?"

Hal laughed, shaking his head. "No. Just curious. You two make one hell of a team and seem to get on like a house on fire."

"We do. Just not that way." Ollie finished with his shower and came out, running a hand over his face. "Almost wish I hadn't been shaving this whole time, just to see what it would look like now.

"The mess I came off the island with was a bit scraggly."

"All the same to you, I'm just as glad you're keeping it shaved," Hal told him.

Ollie laughed, popping his towel in the direction of his best friend and partner in so damned much. They were, in his mind, pretty well-matched, even with all the ways they tended to look at life differently.

"So, what are we doing to day that you wanted us to stay in a motel instead of camp out?" he asked.

"There's a small avionics museum here," Hal answered, grinning at the groan that got.

"Not another one!

* * *

Of course they couldn't make it all the way back around to Star City, or Coast City, since they were still arguing over where to end the trip, without at least one fight breaking up the quiet exploration of life in America. The bank in this town was a clearing house for three separate Big Agro concerns, which made it an actual temptation despite this town being almost the middle of nowhere, still on the dry side of the state.

Hal and Ollie took one look at every single sheriff, deputy, and highway patrol going in one direction and ducked off the road to let Oliver get kitted up. Hal just told the ring what to do, and he was soon in his Corps uniform, mask in place. He ringed up a disk for Ollie to stand on, and the pair were on their way to find the trouble.

When they got there, the police were glad for the assistance for once, and it did not take long to figure out why. There were maybe four goons, and then there was the ringleader, some costumed idiot thinking that superpowers were an easy ticket to money and fame alike.

There was one problem, this time.

"Why yellow?" Hal griped before they had engaged, making Ollie shake his head. A swift touch of every arrow reminded him which was which as he took in the bee-costumed henchman and the leader, looking like a giant yellow-jacket in his get-up.

"Just try and keep the collateral damage down, herd them where I can cuff or pin them," Ollie suggested.

"Sure thing, pal," Hal said, ready to use his ring smarter rather than rush in and get fouled up by the ring's vulnerability.

In the next ten minutes, the Emerald Archer and the Ring Slinger proved they were just as capable of fighting on the small level as they could the world stage. Despite the costumed villain summoning hordes of yellow jackets to harry and harass them, Team Green was on top of it. Of course, there would be teasing over the cryo-arrow later, and a bit of fun poked at how many stings Hal took, but that was just who they were.

* * *

The pair entered Hal's place and dropped on the couch, bags left at the door.

"Damn." Ollie looked in the direction of the kitchen, and Hal shook his head. A moment later he was stretching an energy arm with a hand to the fridge, bringing back two beers. One went to Ollie, and the other was for himself, popping both lids off with the ring.

It made Ollie laugh, watching such a frivolous use of power.

"Did we learn what America was?" Hal asked after both had taken a long swallow.

"Not sure." Ollie knocked back another swallow. "I know I did learn something. I know I saw a hell of a lot of life that I never really understood, but I also know this country is a hell of a lot bigger than what we could cover in the time we had.

"There's going to be things we never get, because we just don't have the right mindset for it. But I know I saw people glad to have heroes. I saw people willing to do for others first. And, cheesy as it sounds, I saw for a fact that the best pal in my life is a man I don't ever want to see the last of."

Hal stared at him, then started laughing, good and long, letting it shake his shoulders until his belly hurt from laughing so much.

"What?"

"Buddy, even for you, that was the cheesiest 'I love you' yet," Hal admitted. "But, hell of it is? I feel the same damned way.

"Maybe we'll just have to make trips through those other parts over the years coming to us."

"I like that idea a lot, Hal. It's a deal."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, again, for your donation. I have hopes of a second story to go as a companion to this, but I wanted to give you something at the midpoint of the year.


End file.
